Australians are encouraged to buy goods made in Australia by Aussie-owned companies. This is obviously helpful to their balance of payments and is a good attitude to have, along with pride in your country and support of your compatriots.
One of the well known Aussie-owned brands, which uses this "Buy Australian" message on its packaging and advertising is food producer Dick Smiths. Their packaging for processed cheese states on the back that most Australians buy Kraft cheese, which is US-owned, and they have a similar message on all their products. They inform customers that Kraft is ultimately owned by US cigarette giant Phillip Morris, so it¡¦s easy to see that this is a useful campaign.
However, as with having pride in your country, this attitude can go too far and have a sinister side. A TV ad for Herron painkillers parades a series of proud all-white Aussies saying things like "Why buy foreign products and let the money go overseas" where the F in foreign is given a sneering emphasis implying all foreigners are the scum of the earth.
In UK ads it¡¦s often painfully obvious that the makers have made sure every ethnic group is represented in any group of people shown, but I now think this is preferable to the alternative of having blatantly white-only ads in a country with large immigrant populations (especially when the ad is slagging off foreigners). Whilst I¡¦ve not heard of race riots in Australia (which we¡¦ve had in the UK even in the last couple of years), racism here can be pretty blatant, and seems to be mainly aimed at Asians. (And I¡¦ve not even started on the Aboriginal issue.) I've heard that racism is worse in Queensland, apparently the home of the maddest section of the Aussies. But the New South Wales lot would say that, wouldn't they?
Tim Tams hit the UK
On a lighter note, when we first got to Sydney I raved about Tim Tams, a type of chocolate biscuit similar to Penguins. I've continued to be impressed by these glorious biscuits, and was overjoyed to discover the other day that the pack says a standard serving is two biscuits - allowing me to double my dose, and loosen my belt another notch.
Well, I heard last week that Aussie biscuit company Arnotts (or, rather, their US owners) are launching Tim Tams in the UK this year. I don't know if they¡¦re out yet, but as soon as they do arrive I advise all those reading this in the UK to log off and rush to the shops. They are divine.
I read an interview with the inventor of Tim Tams recently (honestly) and was interested to discover that he invented them after having Penguin biscuits in the UK in the fifties. He thought they were nice and decided to experiment with different mixtures of chocolate and cream to make an improved version. He certainly succeeded. As someone who's had his share of Penguin biscuits in his time I can vouch that the Aussie version kicks the Penguin biscuit out of the biscuit-ballpark.
Arnotts are taking legal action against ¡§Proudly Australian¡¨ food company Dick Smiths, who are making a very similar biscuit and calling it Temptin' (shamelessly written as "Tem p Tin"), with very similar packaging to the Tim Tam. Amusingly, the defendant has offered to clarify things by clearly stating on their packs "These are not US owned Tim Tams, but delicious Aussie owned Tem p Tin biscuits".